Sewing with Morgan

My friend and hairdresser, Morgan, came over last week to pick up some scrap leather I've had for years, and we got to talking. She asked me if I knew anyone that gave sewing lessons. Standing in my sewing room it hit me, "Let's trade hair services for sewing lessons?!" 

So it was decided. I've been wanting to go lighter with my hair. My natural color is chocolate brown, and I rarely stray from that shade. Back in December I darkened it  a little when I wandered down the hair color isle at Walmart, instead of focusing only on the shampoo and conditioner I needed to buy. Since it will be difficult to get that previous color off, which has since faded back to my natural color, Morgan is going to start foiling it like crazy. 

Today was our first sewing lesson. I told her to bring an old t-shirt and the rest of the fabric/interfacing we could find in my massive collection. Instead of starting her off with a pillowcase with a zipper, we opted for the easier design that just overlaps two pieces in the back that allow a pillow to be inserted. 

She started by cutting out a square piece of interfacing and centering it on her t-shirt. 

Then she cut out two rectangular pieces of cotton, the width of the first square but a few inches longer. This overlap of the two pieces will create the opening for the pillow. Clem almost lost her tail when Morgan was cutting fabric. She's always getting in the way.

Clem loved watching Morgan iron and cut fabric. I'm so glad it's warm enough to open all the windows in my apartment!

Morgan then pinned one side of each of the rectangles and sewed a double-fold hem. 

She sewed the side that is the length of the square.

After carefully pinning the two rectangles to the square, Morgan sewed all four sides.

Then added a zig-zag stitch to the raw edges. 

She was very focused!

We even made an insert for the case!

An TA-DA!! Morgan has a great new throw pillow!

It was so easy. Next sewing lesson: a tote!